Into every life a few hair clippings must fall.
Not necessarily the planned kind when Mom finally breaks down to take the child for the first haircut either.
First haircuts are tough decisions that every mom is called upon to make. It’s especially a tough time for moms with little boys sporting precious curls and long locks that are so sweet. But when that first stranger comments on how cute the little girl is, then the curls are gone. Quicker if the comment is made to Dad.
When my daughter was young I didn’t have to worry about those precious curls and long locks. For the first two years of her life I had to make sure she dressed in lots of pink with a definite feminine flair.
There was nothing on top her head except peach fuzz. There was no attaching a bow, barrette, or ribbon of any sort on the top of that child’s head. I tried the tiniest of clips, Velcro, and scotch tape. Nothing stayed in.
And it didn’t matter how girly of an outfit she had on there was always someone who called her a he. Now after having waited nearly 10 years before getting that little girl I did not appreciate it one bit when she was called he either.
As most all little girls (and boys, too) do at one time or another in their young lives, she discovered scissors. By the time she was five years old she had decided she wanted a flat top like her brothers were wearing at the time and she wanted to practice being a beauty shop lady.
On two separate occasions we had to take her to a professional and try to repair the mess she had made of what little hair she had finally grown. Twice the beautician just shook her head and reinforced to me her plaque that read, “I am a beautician, not a magician.”
She did her best with what she had to work with. It was 100 percent better than what I could have done, but it wasn’t fixable enough to look like a job that said a professional had cut her hair.
It wasn’t long though before it grew out and could be repaired properly.
She finally outgrew cutting her own hair, but that didn’t deter her wish that someday she was going to be a real beauty shop lady.
She practiced on her dolls, she got the unsuspecting dog and cat involved at times, and sometimes when her brothers and her dad were in pretty good moods they let her work on them. No scissors they exclaimed.
And on really good days she recruited her brothers’ friends.
One day I walked into the house and there was this cute little six-year-old standing in the kitchen chair with her apron on and all the curlers, brushes, combs, barrettes Dippity Do gel, and the hair spray spread out on the table.
Sitting in the chair in front of her at the table was one of my oldest son’s friends. Longer hair for the boys was in at that time which made it perfect for holding all the pretty pink curlers in his hair.
He sat there while my sons sat around the table watching him get his new do.
Surprised I asked him how he let her talk him into this little adventure.
He just laughed and said he didn’t have any sisters, only two brothers, and she was just so cute and sweet he couldn’t resist her charms. Besides that he knew her brothers had already been initiated into the beauty shop game and they couldn’t blackmail him with any of the evidence.
They all spent the better part of the afternoon playing beauty shop, she loved the game and all the attention, and I got plenty of pictures to prove it. I would never blackmail him though.
Maybe that’s why his family eventually ended up moving out of town a couple of years after that special afternoon. He and her brothers sure made it a good day for this little girl and it gave Zach the experience of having a little sister.
Over the years we’ve lost touch with him and his family, but I bet if he has little girls of his own now he lets them play beauty shop on him just like she did with her dad and brothers all those years ago.
She didn’t become a beauty shop lady, but now she has her own little girl she can primp with… if the child ever grows anymore hair and doesn’t cut it all off after she does get some.
